Production and Operations Management 1997

CONFIGURING A SUPPLY CHAIN TO REDUCE THE COST OF DEMAND UNCERTAINTY

Marshall L. Fisher¹; Janice H. Hammond²; WALTER OBERMEYER³; Ananth Raman²

¹ University of Pennsylvania · ² Harvard University · ³ Sport Obermeyer Ltd., 115 AABC Aspen, Colorado 81611 USA

Abstract

Reducing lead time enables a company to react more quickly to demand information and, hence, to better match supply with uncertain demand. But it is only one lever for improving response capability. Managers are familiar with others (e.g., excess capacity, supplier choice, and so forth) but lack techniques to quantify the impact of adjusting these levers. Here, we enumerate a number of these levers and present a model whereby they might be combined into effective response capability. The impact of adjusting these levers is illustrated by data obtained from a skiwear manufacturer that did so. Some of the insights that resulted run counter to intuition.

DOI

10.1111/j.1937-5956.1997.tb00427.x

Sources

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APA 7 MLA 9 Chicago (author–date) Harvard Elsevier Harvard (JFE, JBF…) The Accounting Review Academy of Management American Marketing Association INFORMS (Management Science) Copy citation Copied ✓